Judicial commission seeks copies of MoU signed by PTI, PML-N

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Commission probing the alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections on Friday sought copies of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to constitute the commission.
The three-member judicial commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and comprising Justice Ameer Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, conducted the hearing.The commission completed recording statements of returning officers of 11 National Assembly constituencies who had sought extra ballot papers in the 2013 elections. The commission had summoned these returning officers for recording their testimonies.
The commission directed the counsel of the PTI, Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, and Shahid Hamid, counsel of the PML-N, to submit the copies of MoU signed by both the parties. “The ordinance under which the inquiry commission has been constituted has a background as the parties had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and we want to go through it,” Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk told the PTI counsel.
It is pertinent to mention here that the MoU signed by both the parties on April 1, 2015 resolved that the PML-N shall ensure that an ordinance under Article 89 of the Constitution shall be promulgated to provide for the formation of a judicial commission.
The commission shall comprise three judges of the apex court, and the parties shall be pleased if the commission includes the chief justice of Pakistan as its chairman.Pirzada replied that this was a purpose-specific ordinance, adding that all the political parties were contacted and a number of letters were exchanged in this regard. Shahid Hamid submitted that they had already filed it with some documents. However, he added that it would be filed again with the learned commission.
The judicial commission asked the counsels for both the parties to file copies of the MoU by Wednesday next week and adjourned the hearing till June 29.Earlier, Anjum Raza, who was appointed as the RO for NA-130, while recording his testimony before the commission on oath, submitted that he did receive the booklets published by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) having guidelines for presiding officers and ROs for the conduct of elections.
Answering questions of Pirzada during cross examination, Anjum Raza said all the presiding officers of polling stations for the constituency had brought the election material before the polling started. He further said that they had consolidated the election results on the basis of Form 14.
Replying to Shahid Hamid, the RO testified that Sohail Butt was the returned candidate from the said constituency with Samina Khalid Ghurki the runner-up candidate while the candidate of the PTI remained third on the said constituency.
During the hearing, Qamar Ejaz who was appointed as the RO for NA-157and two provincial assembly constituencies, PP-214 and PP-215, also recorded his testimony. Replying first to the questions put by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, he said that there were a total of 334,495 registered voters in the NA-157 constituency while he made a requisition for printing of 400,000 ballot papers for the said constituency. While replying to Pirzada’s questions, he testified it was correct to say that there were some 179,755 registered voters for PP-214 while for PP-215, there were 154,740 registered voters. He said that for these two constituencies, he had demanded 200,000 ballot papers.
Khalid Iqbal, the RO for NA-171 and two provincial constituencies, PP-240 and PP-241, while recording his statement, said that there were 336,787 registered voters in the NA constituency for which he had asked for 390,000 ballot papers.
To a question put by Pirzada, the RO said that he did not receive any instructions for determining the volume of ballot papers to be printed but he did his own assessment for both, i.e. the NA constituency and provincial assembly constituencies.
He said that he had made the assessment for ballot papers keeping in view the polling scheme. To another question, he said that he received the ballot papers on May 8, 2013. He further testified that the assistant returning officer received the election material on his behalf at Dera Ghazi Khan, escorted by army men with ranks of major and colonel.
During the course of hearing, Farooq Sattar, senior leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), also recorded his statement on oath before the commission.He rejected the allegations made by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (Haqiqi).